Barricade shuddered,
slowly becoming aware of his surroundings. Heavy clamps were secured
uncomfortably tight to his frame, and more disconcertingly, his
wheels were off the ground. Attempting to transform brought him to
the conclusion that whoever had secured the clamps knew exactly what
they were doing, immobilizing the most important parts of his chassis
and preventing him from freeing himself. He shifted a bit, then
stopped as pain stabbed through his side.

Even if he could get
down, escaping was out of the question. His side was mangled, one tire
was shredded, his windshield was cracked, his weapons were gone, and
his hood was badly dented from when he'd tried to dodge around
Ironhide and had gotten backed over for his trouble.

The Autobots had been
hunting him for weeks; with the human's help and satellite imagery,
they'd finally caught him in Oklahoma City. They cornered him in
mostly-empty underground parking garage before he realized they were
there. The fight had been short and vicious, and ended with an irate
Ironhide punching the stubborn Decepticon into unconsciousness.

The sound of footsteps
brought Barricade's attention back to the present.

"Awake finally,"
Ratchet observed.

"Let me down,"
Barricade growled.

Ratchet snorted. "Why,
so you can tear out what's left of your rear axle trying to
escape?" He picked up a tool. "Stop squirming before you break
something important."

Barricade's engine
growled. He'd already come to the conclusion that escape was
impossible, but he wasn't going to admit that to an Autobot.
Ratchet rapped him hard on the hood.

"Didn't I just tell
you to knock that off? Hold still!"

Barricade ignored the
command, letting the medic know in precise detail exactly where he
could stick his medical equipment.

"That's it.
I have to put up with enough of this crap from my own team; I'm not
taking it from you, too!" Ratchet yanked open a panel, ignoring
Barricade's continued struggling.

-Manual override.
Initiating shut down.-

"Slagging Auto-"

-Stasis lock.-

x-x-x

Ironhide leaned in the
doorway, watching Ratchet work in silence.

The medic glanced back
at him. "You coming in, or did you accidentally bolt your tailgate
to the doorway?" Ratchet went back to working on a bent strut. "Did
you have to cave in his whole side? Do you have any
idea how much work it's going to take to fix this?"

"If he'd stopped
when Prime told him to, I wouldn't have had to hit him so hard. Or
so many times," Ironhide said defensively.

Ratchet grunted. "Yeah,
and you didn't enjoy it at all, did you."

"Hey, I can't help
it if beating up Decepticons is therapeutic. And taking pleasure in
one's work is supposed to be a good thing." The truck looked over
the unconscious Barricade. "Prime wants an update. He gonna live?"

"Of course he'll live. Whether he likes it or not." The strut slid back into
place with a snap. "He's functional now – I just got tired of
his snarling."

"Got to admire him a
bit," Ironhide said after a moment, "He's quite the tenacious
little bastard, ain't he?"

"That's one way of
putting it," Ratchet grumbled. "Stupidly stubborn, is what I'd
call it. Kind of reminds me of a certain weapons specialist who needs
to go away and stop distracting me before I strap him to a table."

"Hey! I resent that!"

"The word is
'resemble,' Ironhide. Now scram, or I'm going to decide you
need your coolant flushed."

Ironhide backed up. "No
need to get nasty. I'll just leave you and your new friend for some
quality 'alone time.'" He ducked a spanner. "I'm going!"

x-x-x

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